Through his Twitter account, the President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro, reported that the government agreed to a bilateral ceasefire with the ELN, the Segunda Marquetalia, the Central General Staff, the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) and the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada.
The Presidential Council for Information and Press published an explanatory primer on the bilateral cessation decreed this end of the year.
According to the council, the ceasefire will become effective with these five organizations as of January 1st. “The main reason why the National Government initiates this ceasefire is the repeated request of the communities that inhabit the territories involved in this conflict,” said the official channel of the presidency.
Likewise, the official channel of the presidency indicated that the objective of this ceasefire “will be to suspend the humanitarian impact on ethnic-territorial and peasant communities, and the Nation in general, suspend offensive actions and avoid armed incidents between the Public Force and the organizations outside the law with which said cessation was agreed.
According to the government, this decision is made because it has received different letters from civil society and the Catholic Church requesting the cessation of violence, “the organizations with which the bilateral ceasefire has been agreed are ELN, Segunda Marquetalia, Central General Staff, the AGC and Sierra Nevada”.
The Presidency ensures that for the initiation of these ceasefire pacts, “the Government will issue a specific decree for each of the organizations, where the duration and conditions of said ceasefire will be determined.”
On the other hand, it indicated that said decision “will have national and international verification by the UN Verification Mission, MAPP/OEA, the Ombudsman’s Office and the Catholic Church.”
On the other hand, the government indicates that it does not contemplate a ceasefire with other organizations, “the National Government will review the results of the processes in execution and other unilateral ceasefires, to make future decisions, as part of the commitment to Total Peace ”.
Finally, the presidency indicates that “in the face of the manifestation made by other organizations outside the law, the High Level Commission stipulated in Law 2272 of 2022 is created, confirmed by the Ministry of Defense, OACP and DNI, whose purpose is to study , characterize and qualify the organized armed structures of high-impact crime referred to in Law 2272 of 2022″.